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Police looking into bar in wake of stabbings, shooting

Police looking into bar in wake of stabbings, shooting

Michele Ellson

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 15:23

Alameda police said they’ll be reviewing a local bar’s business and liquor licenses and stepping up patrols in the wake of a melee Sunday morning, during which one man was stabbed multiple times in the back - one of three violent incidents police said evolved out of fights that started at the bar over the last 18 months.

Police said this is the second stabbing and fight at Scobies over the past three months and one of several incidents, including a shooting, that have taken place outside the bar over the past year and a half. Capt. Paul Rollieri said the department began directed patrols of the area in March and April following an earlier fight at Scobies that resulted in a stabbing and a shooting at the AMF Southshore Lanes bowling alley; the patrols resulted in several arrests, including an arrest of a Scobies patron who was found carrying a loaded handgun, he said.

“The directed enforcement patrols had a positive impact as evident by the decrease of incidents over the past several weeks. This weekend’s melee however, is a clear indication that an increased police presence is once again warranted. As a result, the Alameda Police Department will resume its directed enforcement efforts in and around the area of Scobies,” a community announcement released Tuesday says.

Scobies owner In Cha Chung said she’s made efforts to prevent fights like the ones that occurred early Sunday and that she thinks her bar, which sits on Central Avenue near Park Street, is being unfairly singled out.

“It happens everywhere,” she said. “If people start a fight, we kick them out. What more can we do?”

Chung pointed to a list of rules outside the bar’s entrance that includes a ban on fighting, solid-color T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts, “wife beater” tank tops and doo rags. It says people who are drunk when they arrive won’t be let into the bar and that people who are visibly intoxicated will be asked to leave.

The bar and grill's business and liquor licenses are current, a call to the city and online liquor license records show, and no disciplinary actions were listed in online records for Scobies' liquor license.

But Rolleri said the number of violent incidents that have followed fights at the bar over the past 18 months - including a November 2011 shooting - is unusual.

"Yes, there have been other incidents in other parts of town. But there have been three at Scobies," he said. "I don't know that you can totally prevent something like this. But there are things you can do to reduce the likelihood something is going to happen."

According to the department’s announcement, the brawl followed a fight that police said began early Sunday with six or seven women inside the bar and spilled out into the street. Once outside, police said the fight grew into three or four separate fights involving 20 to 30 people and that one man was found lying face down on the 2400 block of Central Avenue with multiple stab wounds, which they said were not life-threatening, in his back.

Chung said two women in their early 20s began fighting in the restroom during a birthday party and that the bar’s security guard attempted to break up the fight after being alerted by another customer.

“They were really, really wild. Like cats,” Chung said.

She said two groups, including women and men, continued fighting outside.

Police are still looking for a suspect in the stabbing, they said, and Rolleri said their criminal investigation into the fights and stabbing are ongoing.

“All of the parties contacted at the scene were extremely intoxicated and the stabbing victim was uncooperative,” the release says.

Comments

Submitted by jcp on Tue, May 21, 2013

This place needs to be shut down. It is being "singled out" (as it should be) because it has been responsible for many violent incidences. It is similar to one person being "singled out" for stabbing another person. Thank you.

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